Valuing Your Engagement Ring

Whether you are just curious to find out or in some kind of financial crisis, knowing the value of your engagement ring might be something that you are interested in. If you taken it in to your local pawnshop, you may be have been taken aback by their low offer. The likely reason for this is because diamonds are extremely difficult to value, and the local cash for gold stores don’t have the proper resources to do so. Using our diamond value calculator is a good place to start, but we will also show you the different things that can make your engagement ring worth more or less money.

The Two Parts of an Engagement Ring

The first thing you will need to understand is that engagement rings will be valued based on two different parts, the diamonds and other stones, along with the setting. Each ring is different so some will have multiple diamonds and gemstones, while others contain one diamond. Every diamond and gemstone will be valued and appraised individually. The setting that your diamonds are in, is likely made from a precious metals such as gold, silver or platinum. Precious metals are much easier to value than the diamonds, so we will start by showing you how to estimate the value of your setting.

Finding The Value of Engagement Ring Settings

Just like valuing other metals, no matter the shape of use of the metal, there are only three things that matter when determining value; weight, purity and price. To sum it up quickly, you being by weighing the metal (ex. 15 grams), then finding its purity (ex. 12k, 12k = 50%). From there you will need to look up the current price that the precious metal is trading at online (ex. Gold – $1000/oz). Now with those numbers, you can see what the gold setting is worth:

The setting weighs 15 grams, but is only 12 karat gold. This means that the actual amount of gold contained in the ring is only half of what it weighs, which would make the setting contain 7.5 grams of gold.

You also know that gold is worth $1000/oz. and there are ~28 grams in an ounce. This equates to one gram of gold being worth $35.70.

Find The Value of Engagement Ring Diamond

As it was mentioned earlier, a diamond can be difficult to grade and this can lead to a low offer from a local pawnshop. There are many characteristics of a diamond that will affect its value. The main features of a diamond that a grader will look at are the cut, color, carat, clarity, also known as the 4 C’s of Diamonds. More info on how those features are graded can be found here. The online diamond buyers employ diamond graders who have gone through extensive training to understand what makes a diamond valuable and how to spot the different features. These graders are also equipped with the necessary tools needed in order to get a close-up view of the various stones.

Despite it being difficult to value your diamonds, check out our diamond carat calculator. This can give you an idea of the size of your diamond which you can then compare to others that are available for sale.